Nation Correspondent
30 January 2007
Nairobi — The future of Leonard Mucheru, now Salim Jawher, who was allegedly stripped off his Bahraini citizenship for running a marathon race in Israel, remains unclear.
Conflicting reports indicate Mucheru was never stripped off his citizenship for running in Israel, a country not recognised by the tiny oil-producing nation. But he has been banned from representing Bahrain or any country in an athletics competition for two years as punishment for competing in Israel.
Bahrain have maintained the decision has not been revoked but his agent says otherwise.
Mucheru travelled to Manama to explain his side of the story recently.
His agents and coach Dorothee Paulmann said the Bahrain Athletics Association reiterated their refusal to allow Jawher to compete for Bahrain or any other country.
"The runner expressed disappointment when he learned this week that the association - while not expelling him from the team - would prohibit him from competing as punishment both for participating in Israeli and for not surrendering his Kenyan passport three years ago, when he received his Bahraini citizenship.
The Jerusalem Post quoted Paulmann as saying she doubted whether Bahrain Athletics Association (BAA) had the powers to revoke Jawher´s citizenship.
They probably realised they couldn't revoke his citizenship without getting in trouble with the International Association of Athletics Federations . Now, in order to punish him, he told me that they want to ban him from running for two years." Paulmann said. But in Bahrain officials denied this claim.
BAA officials recently told Bahraini TV that the decision on Jawher remains unchanged and denied having told a news agency in Nairobi a report contrary to thaty position. Yousif Ahmed Abdul Qader, who was quoted in the report, denied the report.
"I'm just a staff member in the financial section of the Bahrain Athletic Association and I have no authority to speak on these matters," Qader told the English Gulf Daily News yesterday.
BAA vice-president Mohammed Jalal and general secretary Abdulrahman Askar also denied a decision had been taken on Jawher.
"The BAA offices were closed over the weekend and there was no way any official decision could have been taken and communicated to the press," they said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
